A RUNNER is taking on the challenge of a lifetime as she attempts to run fifteen marathons in fifteen months to raise £5,000 for deaf blind children and adults.

Kerry Whitney, who completed her third race at the weekend - the Vikings & Saxons Marathon, was inspired to take on the gruelling challenge to raise money for Sense, the national deafblind charity as she works for a special needs school in London.

The 33-year-old, originally from Middlesbrough, said: “Sense come to our school and help us support pupils with sight and hearing impairments. Knowing that raising money could help the children at my school keeps me motivated. Whenever I don’t feel like training, or I ache and I am sore I think of them. If I could do anything to make any of their lives easier I would do it.”

She started her challenge in September last year with the Berlin marathon and will finish in December with the Portsmouth marathon. Not only that but she plans to do the London Marathon blindfolded with a guide to help her around the course and recently completed the Great North Run dressed as a squid!

She only started running four years ago and has completed fifty races since, including five marathons, and numerous 10ks and half marathons.

“If someone had told me five years ago that I would be a marathon runner I would have laughed a lot," she said. "I once read a quote that said ‘I’m slower than a herd of turtles running through peanut butter, but I run.’ Don’t let people tell you that you can’t do something. Just never give up.”

She is aiming to raise £5,000 for Sense, to sponsor her visit: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/KerryWhitney